Landmark Museum Shuttered Since Sandy, No Reopening in Sight

-100 Old Slip

100 Old Slip, a City-owned individual landmark that was home to the Police Museum, has remained shuttered since it was damaged in Hurricane Sandy five years ago. Re-using the building is a priority of the New York Police Department, which now has jurisdiction, but there is no final plan and additional City funding is needed.

The Conservancy gave the Museum a $10,000 emergency grant after Sandy to help restore the monumental exterior oak doors which were warped by the flooding. They are now chained closed. Hunt and Hunt Architects designed the building as the First Precinct Police Station in 1909, in a Renaissance Palazzo style.

A 2013 New York Post article said the City did emergency repairs post-Sandy and was negotiating for FEMA funding. A 2014 New York Times story said the City still did not have a total estimate of what restoring and reopening the building would cost.

An official in the NYPD’s capital construction unit said last week that the Department has done some additional work and is monitoring the building but “there is no firm plan.” He said they now have FEMA funding and some City money but more is needed. He could not give an overall estimate of the cost. The Department of Cultural Affairs transferred jurisdiction of the landmark to the NYPD in 2015.

David Gildey, chair of the Police Museum, said the Police Department “has been very helpful.” But he added that they are still searching for additional temporary space.

The Museum is now in its third temporary home— Pershing Hall, Building 125, on Governors Island. They are featuring exhibits on the history of the NYPD, women in the NYPD and the police and other first responders work at Ground Zero after the 2001 attack. But many of its artifacts remain in storage.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dedicated the Police Museum at 100 Old Slip three months after 9/11. Prior to the Museum, the building housed the City Landmarks Preservation Commission.